Focus on the results tonight if you want, but if you don’t want to recognize the style of play that get this team into trouble and who is usually responsible for it then don’t come back and wonder why they possible lay an egg on offense against app state, just like they have twice already.

If Edwards, or anyone else for that matter, has the ability to get in the paint that breaks down the defense. Even if they miss (and Edwards makes those shots at a great clip or draws fouls) it creates a lot of easy put backs.

Much better than passing around the perimeter with no penetration before jacking up a contested 3 imo.

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One of the most impressive stats tonight... 28-31 FT's

We are two wins away from our winningest season in school history

Ark state giving Troy a game. That would be a huge win for the dukes.

Up 31 - it became a me game vs. a we game. Edwards already presses sometimes to carry the team, on nights like this he is even more sticky with the ball. Freidel had a horrible shooting night, and Michael Green followed up a great performance with a disappearing act tonight.

We played some good defense against a team that is not as deep, shot very well for the first half, and made tons of free-throws. Took care of business 20 point win, reload for next game.

A conference tourney - is tough. I think we have both the top talent to win a game and the deepest bench to endure the stretch.

Go Dukes!

Had a long stretch where we couldn't get anything to fall, good thing we were so dominant and built such a huge lead before. Troy lost to stAte tonight, moving JMU in to a tie for second with the Trojans. JMU won't win the tiebreaker with Troy or App State though, so we need Troy to lose another to have the chance to jump them, and need App State to lose two in order to jump them if we can win out.

You could tell the Dukes changed their habits once the game got so far out of hand. The 2nd half was nothing like the first half as JMU’s defense got softer and the offense shared the ball less. That is fine for now during a run vs bad opponents. But leaves work left to be done before the Sun Belt Tourney.

Dukes have only one more home game tomorrow and then a 4 game road stretch to finish the season. Right now they are 3 games ahead of teams in 5th place and getting close to securing the all important top 4 seed and accompanying double bye.

They play a brutal #312 Ga Southern team twice in the next 8 days. The Eagles have a perfect 0-13 OOC record. Nice

(02-16-2024 05:28 AM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  You could tell the Dukes changed their habits once the game got so far out of hand. The 2nd half was nothing like the first half as JMU’s defense got softer and the offense shared the ball less. That is fine for now during a run vs bad opponents. But leaves work left to be done before the Sun Belt Tourney.

Honestly, this is about as good a silver lining as you can get. Fuel for coaching, staying on top of your game. The fact that they still managed a solid margin of victory but had some real opportunities for mentoring and growth ahead of tourney time is a double win.

Georgia Southern was missing a player or two during the out of conference portion of their schedule. I believe So. Miss. was as well. The Eagles have been a tougher out since getting healthy. Doesn’t mean they should beat JMU or even be competitive. Just that JMU has to be ready emotionally to compete every night or an upset can happen.

Winning on the road is hard. Only App at 6-4 and JMU at 8-2 have a winning road record. The rest of the Sunbelt has a losing road record.

Is Bickerstaff finally getting his FT mojo back?

He was an 80% FT shooter at Drexel for his first 2 years.
He had been struggling in the high 50% range for JMU this year.
The last 4 games he is 22-26.

That is a big deal seeing that he gets fouled so much attacking the basket.

Gotta love getting easy points from the charity stripe especially in post season season when games are more tightly contested

I really enjoyed 2 non-basketball parts of the broadcast.

1) Interesting to see how the productions come together and how it provides students very practical experience with state of the art media production tech.

2) Post-game interview with Bickerstaff. Corey "Broke a season high of 6 made free-throws." Bick "I have been working on it". Corey "11-of12". Bick "Whoa". He seemed genuinely surprised he hit that many.

TJ has moved his left foot back which is a more fundamentally correct free throw position. This is the only change I have observed. His free throw performance was noticeably better the last two games and a big lift for the team. I center who is a reliable free throw shooter is a big plus.

(02-19-2024 09:12 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  TJ has moved his left foot back which is a more fundamentally correct free throw position. This is the only change I have observed. His free throw performance was noticeably better the last two games and a big lift for the team. I center who is a reliable free throw shooter is a big plus.

Good observation. It was a little weird to watch. I didn't pick up on the change you mentioned, but did notice his body language and form just looked more relaxed, natural and confident. He didn't look at all surprised he was drilling shot after shot. I'd be nice to be able to keep him in a game we're trying to ice.

(02-19-2024 12:58 PM)olddawg Wrote:  

(02-19-2024 09:12 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  TJ has moved his left foot back which is a more fundamentally correct free throw position. This is the only change I have observed. His free throw performance was noticeably better the last two games and a big lift for the team. I center who is a reliable free throw shooter is a big plus.

Good observation. It was a little weird to watch. I didn't pick up on the change you mentioned, but did notice his body language and form just looked more relaxed, natural and confident. He didn't look at all surprised he was drilling shot after shot. I'd be nice to be able to keep him in a game we're trying to ice.

TI has definitely been trying to find something that works. For a bit he was about six inches behind the line and I think that was reaction to his misses being long. He has stopped doing that and it appears he has changed his stance a bit. FT shooting is all about doing the same thing over and over which works if they are going in. The one thing I notice with TJ is that he doesn’t use his legs enough which results in a very flat shot and his misses are almost always long off back rim and his makes almost always rattle home. I think a little more use of the legs and his hand a little more under the ball and he gets way more consistent as his margin for error will go from about 3 inches to about a foot with more arc on his shot.

Akron big men had great arc on shots and swished almost every one. It’s just pure math that more arc on a shot particularly FT’s makes your chance of make better. They are out there but it is rare to see a great FT shooter with a flat shot.